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breaking news

Flagler Wanted WPB To Be ‘Great City’

Readers: The March 7 column had the oft-repeated phrase that Henry Flagler developed West Palm Beach “for my help.” That prompted a note from John Blades, executive director of the Henry Flagler Museum. Here’s an excerpt from his note:

“I did a lecture recently on the history of West Palm Beach and the evidence is clear that WPB was not built for Flagler’s “help.” In fact, Palm Beach workers were expected to live on the east side of the lake, because,
among other things, it was just difficult to commute across the lake, even if they had wanted to. Flagler’s vision for WPB was that it become a great city and that his body be laid to rest in Woodlawn (Cemetery). Flagler took great pride in seeing the city grow prosperous so rapidly.

“Perhaps the greatest disappointment of his business career was that within a decade of his founding WPB some citizens who eventually formed something called the “Law & Order League” developed a chip on their shoulders about PB and Henry Flagler.

“They resented him for being granted a divorce on the grounds of insanity, they resented the fact that the state granted him incentives to build a railroad to Key West, and they even planned to annex Palm Beach, forcing Palm Beach to hastily incorporate (though the tiny town barely had the 25 votes the state required for incorporation at the time). As a result Flagler changed his legal residence to St. Augustine and decided his final resting place would be there.”